My Takeaway on Iron Mike Weightlifting Seminar

Last year I had the opportunity to attend Mike Mogard's Weightlifting Seminar in Brunei. Weightlifting is extremely technical. Starting out with the wrong form can at best hinder progress, and at worst injure. I had the wrong form, and I needed help to get better.

If there is one takeaway from Iron Mike's seminar that resonates with me till today, it was to focus on just one thing that I wanted to change in my lifts. Trying to "get it all" was only going to leave one confused. Weightlifting is an art crafted over time through countless hours of practice. One can't transform lifts after a single day of working on them. Be patient, focus on something specific to "fix" and go from there.

I appreciated the attention Mike paid to each of us in attendance. He gave plenty of useful cues, personalised instruction and lots of patience. His approach that there isn't only one way to lift successfully was eye opening and made so much sense. Everyone is built differently and has different mobility, flexibility and strengths. What works for one, may not work for someone else. A good lifting coach knows and understands this. There are basic "truths" that all styles of weightlifting agree on, but the rest is really up to the biology of the lifter. This is very important to consider when practicing your own lifts or trying to help someone else out with theirs.

Participating in this seminar was an amazing experience, Not only did I lift heavier weights that day, but two months later I was able to PR one of my stagnant lifts only because of practicing, getting into the right position and combining the movements that were drilled during the seminar.

I highly recommend this seminar to everyone; whether you're wanting to get good instruction as a beginner or just wanting to work on or fine tune your lifts as an intermediate, or learn how to be a better lifting coach. Whatever your goals are, you can benefit from Mike's instruction and experience.

by Ana Brennan

Ana Brennan is an avid CrossFitter and one of the founding partners of Primal Ape CrossFit. Mike Mogard’s Weightlifting Seminar helped improve Ana's lifts helping her to tie for second nationally in the 2015 CrossFit Open.